


IDIC - Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations

by Darkwood_Princess



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Arranged Marriage, Dark Fairy Tales, Exchange students, F/M, Fairy Tales, Fake Marriage, Gen, Mermaids, The Fae, all the aus, any au you want, cause I kinda do, does anyone need a space opera AU, within reason
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-07 14:43:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8804935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkwood_Princess/pseuds/Darkwood_Princess
Summary: Who is to say our universe is the only one? This is for every world where a familiar face is not quite so comforting, the roles have been flipped and altered, and the only shared commonality is who one is at the core.OrI really love Alternate Universes.Most recent chapter: Exchange Students!





	1. The Woods are Lovely, (Not So) Dark, and Deep

**Author's Note:**

> Send in Alternate Universes and I will give some of them a shot! As for this first one, there are a few rules to dealing with the Fae: don't eat or drink anything they give you, don't make any promises you don't intend to keep, and don't trample their fairy rings.

The palest green eyes speared her in the shifting light of the forest, studying her with all the patience of eternity.  Tina Goldstein had been warned repeatedly not to venture into the woods, that only the arcane nested among the oaks and maples.  Stubborn, headstrong, modern Tina had brushed off the warnings as so much nonsense, the vestiges of mythology trying to taint the progress of the present.

And yet?

As the young man stepped fully into the pale light of an upstate spring morning, Tina couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran down her spine at the beauty before her. For he was handsome, far more handsome than any mortal had any right to be, his auburn hair almost glowing in the ethereal lighting, but all that was nothing compared to the sharp intelligence in his eyes, as sharp as the teeth of the creature curled beatifically around his shoulders, it’s shining scales throwing off glints of ephemeral color.

She realized a full heartbeat too late that she’d trespassed into a fairy ring, the soft mushrooms crunched under her hiking boots and flagrantly wilting all around her.

 “ It’s only forever and a day,” his voice was soft, lilting, “which really isn’t that long at all.”

As unseen hands pushed her forward, soft and shaggy despite the surreal situation, all Tina could feel was the sensation of falling, the world around her shifting chaotically, and the only fixed point a shy smile and a pair of incredibly green eyes.  


	2. The  Moon Was A Ghostly Galleon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes what lurks in the depths are better left undiscovered...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dreamworker48 suggested Mermaid!Queenie and Crewman!Jacob as one of my next AU chapters - hope you enjoy! I'm also going to tackle Wldwmn's suggestion of a soulmate AU soon.

He is not meant to be up this late.

A full moon shines fitfully down from the clouded heavens as Lieutenant Jacob Kowalski of the _USS_ _New York_ stands at the rails of the massive battleship. The _New York_ is the best of her class and head of Battleship Division 9, pride of Rear Admiral Rodman and proof that the Americans should be taken seriously. He knows, with the internal chronometer of the weary, that this moonlit jaunt will cost him in energy and efficiency, but knows just as well that he needs this, needs the break from the claustrophobic corridors and never ending twilight of the ship's interior. 

(He needs, if he is being even more honest with himself, a break from the nightmares, the images of German U-Boats rising from the waves to claim the lives of his fellows never far from the caring young man's mind.) 

He contents himself with fresh air and the comfort which comes from a calm sea and fair winds. To the east he spots their charges, the convoy gliding through the smooth waters with an ease that soothes the residual panic, pushing any images of death and destruction into the depths and recesses of his over-active imagination. 

(He calls himself cautious - his commanders were not so kind.) 

Above him the clouds drift slowly away from the moon, illuminating the waves below with the flickering shift of the perpetually rolling and for a moment, the briefest of instances, Jacob thinks he sees something sparkle below him, far off in the waves. 

He stares harder, rubbing the (not-so-distant) sleep from his eyes, and is rewarded when the clouds finally clear the rim of the heavenly body above him, bathing the surrounding sea in pale, pearlescent clarity. 

There is a woman among the waves, her pale blond tresses bobbing with the motion of the sea, her finely sculpted features and luminous eyes the only thing Jacob can focus on in the shifting shadows of ship and moonlight. 

He turns to alert the night guard, to rescue the beauty below him, when the clearest and most glorious voice he has ever heard commands him to stop, to listen. 

She sings of love, of the give and take of the tides, the moon her mistress and no one in heaven or earth able to posses her sovereign soul. 

She sings of her shining kingdom, this Queen of the Ocean, of the subtle play of moonlight on water, of never ending beauty. 

She sings of the comfort of the depths, the weightless joy, _and wouldn't he just love to join her_? 

Jacob Kowalski does not register the frigid North Atlantic water filling his lungs and dragging him down, stealing the heat from him just as the siren above him steals his soul, marveling in the purity of her latest catch. 

Her soft smile, angelic hair painted softly golden through the layers of water above them and drifting in tendrils around him, her triumphant eyes, are the last things he registers before death comes to collect him. He dies with a smile on his face, a far better death than the one which awaited him should his journey have been complete. 

The impassive moon watches on as the convey sails away from the latest victim of the sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have always been entranced by the ocean and while this is darker than I normally go, I hope it was enjoyed! The USS New York is a real ship by the way and Rear Admiral Rodman was a real rear admiral XD .


	3. Nature's First Green Is Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina Goldstein has never seen the color green. She's heard of it of course, but hearing is not the same as seeing and for that to happen she'll need her missing soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is for Wldwmn who requested a soulmate AU. I went with the one where you can see every color except that of your soulmate's eyes, up until you meet them and suddenly everything is complete. This one plays with the way Newt and Tina met and includes my Graves-and-Theseus friendship. 
> 
> I hope this fits what you wanted, Wldwmn, and that everyone enjoys this!

How does one describe a color they have never seen? Where is the vocabulary pulled from, the imagery summoned? Logically Tina knows that a part of her is missing, that the grass and the leaves and her mother’s old pendant that Queenie loves so dearly are not, in point of fact, grey.

She knows what true grey is in all its splendid shades, the color as underappreciated as she is and nothing like the odd fizz and sparkle of not seeing the real nature of an object.  

Tina is nothing if not practical and while she wishes she could understand the pleasure those around her feel in the midst of summer, all she can hope for are the brilliant shades of fall, when the world is no longer as monochrome.  

Her boss Percival Graves knows this better than most, noticing with an almost preternatural skill when any under his command start to descend into the doldrums. He can spot the exact weeks when quiet but efficient Tina becomes absolutely mute but no less efficient Tina.

(He will not admit it – not to any man, woman, or child – but it bothers him to see those he has taken under his wings in pain. Tina has the makings of a fine auror if she can only learn to loosen up a bit, but then he is no one to speak on ‘going with the flow’ per se.)

When his counterpart and old friend from across the pond, Theseus Scamander, sends him a request that one of his people discreetly watch over his baby brother, nascent author and walking human disaster, during the majority of his American press tour, Graves makes the decision that Goldstein needs a disaster or two this July, if only to get her out of the dark and crowded auror offices.

This is how Tina finds herself in the middle of a sweltering July afternoon, watching with practiced boredom from a not so small crowd in a magically protected part of Central Park, as a curly headed young man is ushered onto the small stage, stacks of crimson and gold books off to the side just waiting for the author’s signature.  

She sees nothing particularly special about Mr. Newton Artemis Fido Scamander at first glance, nothing as unique or distracting as his elaborately European name. He is absolutely gangly with a reddish mop of hair and a spray of equally tinted freckles across a long and aquiline nose. He stumbles forward almost hesitantly, as if this is his first speech and not his twelfth, and Tina wonders drily if he isn’t dying in that teal overcoat in the summer sun, a trapped bird of paradise in the concrete New York jungle.

He speaks with confidence, she will give him that much, and while she has never considered magical creatures anything more than a nuisance, she is enamored enough to consider purchasing one of the books on the adjacent stand.  However well he speaks though, Tina notices that he is not particularly focused on maintaining eye contact with the audience, instead choosing to lecture to a point just above their heads. It is only when they are applauding him loudly and vociferously in true American fashion that a somewhat stunned  Mr. Scamander makes eye contact with the attendees and, in particular, with Tina.  

She is frozen as the oddest sensation hits her, slamming into Tina with all the power of a universal constant. The world spins as a new color blossoms into existence right before her eyes, verdantly gorgeous and all around her, nature no longer a fizzing grey, the eyes of the man before her the loveliest hue she has ever seen.

Newt falls off the stage in shock.

Several witches and wizards run towards the stunned magizoologist as he picks himself almost gingerly off the ground, staring in wonder at everything from the chocolate cake wilting on the refreshment table to the fresh earth and, most importantly the woman in front of him, gazing with equal confusion and joy at the world around her.

“I am dreadfully sorry,” are the first words out of his mouth as his eyes are entranced by the warmth of sienna and chestnut orbs before him, “to be deprived of green must have been quite a shock.” There are tears on both their cheeks as Tina shakes her head in amusement.

“The first thing you say to me is an apology,” she huffs with a watery smile, “Though I can’t say missing out on brown is any big travesty.”  His offended stammer, followed by a detailed explanation of just why his life wasn’t complete without the much maligned color, how so many of his creatures' hides and feathers had been a mysterious blank to him, ending with a heartfelt “and your eyes are just beautiful” leaves Tina Goldstein speechless for one of the first times in her life.

As she stares at the man before her, basking in the beauty of the park around her, Tina feels that missing piece of her life slot into place.

XXX

_Dear Theseus,_

_You owe me one. (Or more accurately your brother owes me one.)_

_Percival_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the curious, the chapter titles come from lines of poetry! We've covered "Walking by the Woods on a Snowy Evening", "The Highwayman", and "Nothing Gold Can Stay".


	4. Look’d Up in Perfect Silence at the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Newt is a Prince of Alderaan, Tina and Queenie are Smugglers, and Jacob is Luke - but not really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars and Harry Potter are two of my first fandoms. With the loss of Carrie Fisher and my viewing of Rogue One, I felt the need to write this. I look at it as catharsis. This is part one of two (or maybe three).
> 
> (I am also working on a Newt and Tina at school fic - so keep an eye out for that too!)

When people saw the crown princes, it was bold, gregarious Theseus who they considered worthy of conversation with, worthy of meeting and schmoozing and dancing. Younger, quieter Newton was never in as high demand, called upon far less frequently for dancing and flattery and proposals.

It made his life as a Rebel spy much easier. No one expected shy, stuttering Newt to be the brains behind the latest alien uprising. Oh no, they expected the young senator prince from Alderaan to argue for more ecological preservation on Endor or to protect the nerfs of Corellia and not to have been the one convincing enslaved Wookies to throw off the Empire’s shackles in flawless Shyriiwook.

And Theseus, burning bright in the public eye, forever pleasant and imminently available, always smiled and nodded and accepted audiences and passed his younger brother the information needed to bring their dinner guests’ demise faster than a demiguise spotting the flaws of the future.

Theseus remembered a world before the Empire, a world where Jedi had kept the peace for millennia, a world where Gellert Grindelwald had not set up a puppet government and squashed the beauty of free will. He vaguely remembered their parents, before their adoption by the royal family. He even remembered the man who had brought them to their new life – although all the reports claimed that Albus Dumbledore was dead, along with the rest of the Order.

He passed these stories onto Newt, who treasured glimpses into a forgotten world less than victories for the oppressed races around him, listening because it pleased one of the very few humans in his life that mattered to him. He was in this rebellion for, as people often laughed,  Ewoks and Wookies and Banthas and Dianogas, the many races ignored in favor of shining “humanity”.

And so when his latest “mercy mission” (a beautiful cover for a prince interested in xenobiology ) happened to come into contact with the plans for a weapon capable of destroying whole planets, planets he had been fighting so hard to protect, it was only logical that Newt slip the plans into N1FLR, hoping that the kleptomaniacal little astromech droid would listen to P1KT, his often offended but perfectly clingy etiquette companion,  hopefully getting the plans to the Alliance as fast as possible.

Sacrificing himself as his droids escaped the destruction of the ship around him had seemed so much smarter before coming face to face with the coldly furious face of Lord Marvolo Gaunt, Emperor Grindelwald’s second in command and the last of the Force users of a forgotten era. Gaunt’s grim smile as Newt was dragged away, his taunt that he was going to dredge the location of the rebel bases from him scream by delicious scream rang in Newt’s ears as he was thrown bodily into a cell.

He could only hope that N1FLR and P1KT would make it.

(He prayed his brother would forgive him dying so soon.)

XXX

Tina Goldstein had always been lucky. Lucky not to be caught smuggling weapons and food to those who paid her. Lucky not to be killed in a dozen dim and dirty taverns from Coruscant to the Outer Rim. Lucky to have her little sister, with her knack for knowing just what others were thinking, as her first officer. Lucky to be alive.  

And now, as an auburn haired gentleman she’s never seen before gently shepherds a portly, mustachioed customer towards their table, before leaving without a word, Tina is lucky to have a buyer for her services. His name is Jacob, Jacob Kowalski, and he has recently acquired enough money to leave the dusty and arid nightmare that is Tattoinne.

He is rambling about his dream of owning his own business, something about a bakery and the man who brought him to her, Brian P. Wolfric or some other odd combo of names, giving him the capital as long as he delivered these two droids waiting outside to the same planet she’ll be taking him to, and ‘gosh he’s so glad she’s agreed to take him all the way to Alderaan’ before Tina realizes that Queenie is watching him raptly, her attention unwavering.

She cannot have her sister running off with a man they barely know because Tina knows with the conviction of all older sisters, she too will end up with a soft spot for this smiling and jovial man.

(Although for the life of her, she wonders who would want to marry this man. She doesn’t find him attractive in the least. What she does know is that she and Queenie have always had each other’s backs and they don’t need anyone else, tasty bagels in his pockets or not.)

“Alright that’s enough, Mr. Kowalski. No need to tell the whole bar. We’ll get you there. It’s not a hard trip.”

She regrets these words as the Imperials send shot after shot against her ship, the body shuddering around her as they calculate the jump to lightspeed and Queenie comforts Jacob who has never seen space before.

“It’s okay honey, you’ll be where you need to be soon.” Jacob lets out a noise somewhere between distress and wonder as the starlines blur and the gorgeous velvet of space is replaced with the tanzanite streaks of interstellar travel.

Behind her P1KT is wailing in distress, choosing to shriek instead of use basic, and N1FLR is reaching for an unbolted hydrospanner. Tina feels no distress as she swats the droid, grabbing back the tool before it can be dropped into his dome.

 “Mr. Kowalski, control your droids. Queenie help me navigate.” 

Queenie shoots her a knowing look but complies, both knowing that once the coordinates are in there it’s smooth sailing. But Queenie will not expose her sister’s unease before anyone, nor will she poke fun at her insecurities.

They are sisters first and foremost, Queenie’s attraction to the man calming P1KT with a soothing story about his first wedding cake, while simultaneously nudging a spare omnitool out of N1FLR’s reach, aside.

Tina knows that they will have to talk but all thought of talk is lost as they come out of hyperspace to find Alderaan has been replaced with rubble and a tractor beam for all their trouble.

Tina wants to slam her face into the dash as behind her Jacob murmurs softly that he has, “ a bad feeling about this.”

She wants to yell “join the club” but instead ushers them all into the smuggling compartments, ever efficient. No one will ever accuse Tina Goldstein of not following through on a contract. She will get Jacob Kowalski delivered safely somewhere even if it’s not the clearly destroyed Alderaan, even if it kills her.

( _She’s heard Glee Anselm is good this time of year anyways.)_

XXX

Newt has never liked the color white. White gets dirty in the field, so quick to betray that one has been kneeling in the dirt of a mountain pass to map the movement of a herd of Rancor or that he has been in aiding in the birth of Bantha calves. White makes his pale skin seem almost translucent, the bruises and puncture wounds from Gaunt’s interrogation standing out starkly against a backdrop of freckles and auburn hair.

White stains a dull crimson where his lip split and his nose broke, where the torture droid cut him callously, hoping that pain would cause him to confess what he did with the stolen plans, where the rebels are hiding. White stands for virtue and Newt has never considered himself virtuous, despite his brother’s assurances that he is good.

Now he is standing in torn and bloody robes before Governor Malfoy, Gaunt mere inches behind him, the man’s weapon within taunting grasp although Newt knows that he is in no condition or place to lunge for it.  

Malfoy is speaking, something about military might and acceptable targets and _you will reveal the location of the rebel base_. Newt cannot really focus on him because they are in front of his home planet and he has failed everyone he knows, everyone and thing he loves, and he has just survived Scarif where he saw that _this monstrosity can destroy a city - what will it do to the Palace and his brother below?!?_

But he cannot betray the people in his trust, the creatures and the alien races who have put their faith in him, so he stares into Malfoy’s pale blue eyes and lies, tells him that the rebels are on “Dantoinne, they’re on Dantoinne.”

They destroy his home planet in front of him, laughing at how “trusting” he is as Newt sinks to his knees, tears cleaning tracks on his grime covered face and obscuring the waking nightmare around him.

He cannot wake from this, cannot move, and as they drag him away, Newt feels an uncharacteristic fire sear through him. He will destroy the Empire if he has to take them apart ship by ship, if it's the last thing he does.


	5. Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being an exchange student is its own sort of adventure. Part One of who knows how many in the Tina and Queenie (and Graves and Picquery and my small host of OCs) are sent to Hogwarts fic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is for ali_summerset who requested Ilvermorny!Newt or Hogwarts!Tina which I interpreted as exchange students. I haven't managed to fit Leta in yet, but I will in future chapters. I hope you like this!

The air rushing past the train compartment was warm with the last rays of summer, something Tina Goldstein noticed with the hope that the weather wouldn’t take a turn for the rain and drizzle England was famed for.  The Ilvermorny delegation remained ensconced in their own space, avoiding meeting too many new faces just yet, and had passed the hours quietly, reading, writing, and sleeping, or in Queenie’s case, fidgeting with a rather ugly crochet project for the last four hours.

At ages 12 and 11 respectively, Tina and her sister were some of the younger exchange students, chosen for the yearly program in order to foster some semblance of friendship between the various magical communities of the world. Students the world over were exchanged between the 11 major schools, to Mahoutokoro and Uagadou,  Castelobruxo and Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbaton and Ilvermorny.

Sitting next to her  engrossed in their own projects were two of the final year students, Seraphina and Percival. Percival was silently working his way through a textbook on wizarding relationships with the Fae Courts while Seraphina reread what looked like a much used and annotated copy of a no-maj novel with the odd title “The Prince”. Tina didn’t really believe that the older girl, one of the smartest people she’d ever met, was into romantic drivel, so she assumed that maybe the cover was fake and Seraphina must have charmed it so that people would assume she was acting like a normal teenage girl.

Tina had learned quickly enough that her own very serious, very thorough approach to life was considered abnormal, that Queenie’s sunshine personality and easy ability to speak with others was considered the norm. Some days she worried that she was an oddball in a community of the arcane, but mostly she just brushed the fears away. After all, if she could get a good enough job when she got older to support herself and Queenie, it didn’t matter how odd anyone considered her.  

Queenie’s eyes snapped up and met her sister’s, a sad smile on the blonde’s face as she reached across the compartment to grab her sister’s hands. Even when she never said a word, Queenie’s pale green eyes said everything Tina needed to hear, that she herself was worth more than some future job, that Queenie loved her for herself, that it was them against the world forever and ever.

The moment was interrupted by Manuel slumping over onto Queenie as a frustrated Lailah pushed the dark haired young man off of her numb shoulder and the silence in the compartment was broken by Rod’s quiet laughter and Queenie’s soft acquiescence of the older boy’s weight on her.

(Tina could’ve sworn she heard a soft chuckle from Percival sitting next to her, but she didn’t dare check to see if the taciturn upper classman had actually laughed.)

The train traveled onwards, heedless of the little personal dramas taking place within its confines and soon enough the seven of them were sitting on boats and heading towards one of the most beautiful castles either Tina or Queenie had ever seen. To be fair, neither girl had been given the opportunity to travel beyond the trip between New York and Ilvermorny, and Hogwarts was only the second castle they’d visited.

And yet, as any witch or wizard who visited the magnificent school, both girls were enchanted by the looming grandeur, the crenellated and capped towers spiraling straight up into an infinitely starry sky. Even the ever talkative Manuel was quiet with awe, taking in the moment as their little boats glided gently across the lake.  

The rest of the evening was a blur of color and sound, the Ilvermorny delegation given a table of their own near the front of the Great Hall where they could watch and observe all that transpired. Tina, sat between Rod and Queenie, could tell that the older boy was fascinated by the enchanted ceiling and it’s not-so-subtle recreation of the night sky outside the castle, while Queenie was taking quiet deep breaths, trying to cope with the overwhelming feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of people whose accent she couldn’t quite decipher and therefore couldn’t assimilate as well as she’d practiced back home.

To be honest, Tina was more focused on Queenie than the speeches or the curious hat that sorted students and sang some sort of ditty for their entertainment in a way so completely alien from their own sorting. By the time Queenie had stopped looking pale and drawn, the food was being served. As soon as Queenie served herself a generous helping of dinner, Tina relaxed enough to pull some food onto her plate, although the food before them looked quite a bit different than what she was used to at home. Certainly there were no hotdogs on the menu and that was enough to make her glad that she attended Ilvermorny. Queenie shot her a weak smile and Tina ruffled her sister’s hair gently before diving into the bread she’d snagged, her thought process being ‘you can’t stuff too many weird things into bread’.

Before she knew it Percival and Seraphina were rounding up their little group and following an eccentric looking red headed professor down an impossibly complex series of pathways before they reached a clean and well lit corridor that dead ended in a portrait of a dozing knight and his short, stubby pony.

Dumbledore, she’d learn his name later from Lailah, was the man in charge of making sure their stay was both educational and enjoyable. He had a beaming smile and an odd taste in fashion, given his plum robes which clashed horribly with his fiery hair. He seemed nice, but Tina had always held that people were not what they seemed at first.

(Years of dealing with wizarding foster care had taught her that those with the brightest smiles were often the cruelest, that promises meant little, and that you, and you alone, were responsible for getting things done the way you wanted them.)

He woke up the portrait with a gentle, “Sir Cadogan, you have guests.” The knight bolted to his feet and stumbled comically right over his horse, landing with a clank of armor and middle century not-swear-words-but-still-not-polite language on the other side of the grazing mare.

“I am at your service, good sirs and ladies. I am Siiiiiiir CAAADOGAN and I will protect you with all of my might!” His visor slipped down over his face, clipping off part of a rather impressive mustache, which had Queenie giggling, Seraphina looking unimpressed, and Percival rolling his eyes. Behind her Tina heard Manuel whisper to Rod and Lailah that the knight was “loco en el coco” while Lailah swatted at him and Rod tried to stifle a smile. Dumbledore merely continued on with neverending serenity.

“The password, children, is ‘Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth – The Brothers Orkney’. I apologize for its length, but Sir Cadogan is a bit particular in what he will answer to and he loved Arthur.”

Seraphina’s muttered, “Are you sure he doesn’t love Cervantes,” went unnoticed by their host, as Cadogan slammed his visor up and proceeded to start in on a long winded ode to the Knights of the Round Table which ended when Dumbledore coughed gently and the knight realized the password had been given.  Slowly the portrait swung away from the wall to reveal an entrance into a beautifully decorated room, filled with cozy couches and a crackling fire.

“These will be your quarters while you’re visiting us. You’ll find that the two staircases lead to boys and girls dormitories. I would advise,” his eyes twinkled mischievously, “that you don’t attempt to go up the wrong staircase. It’s quite an infamous slide.” He gestured them forward and the students all entered, shutting out the never ending ramble of Sir Cadogan as he called out cheerily, “If you but require a thing, gentle sirs and kind ladies, you must only call on Sir Cadogan and I will come!”

Tina felt herself seriously wondering if he was placed there because no one would consider the portrait competent enough to guard anyone, let alone exchange students.  Her musings were interrupted by Dumbledore’s soft goodnight as he slipped out of the room, having pointed out their morning schedules stacked neatly on a table near the door and reminding the students that should they really need any help, his office was easy to find.

“So,” Lailah remarked to the room at large after Dumbledore swept out, “ Anyone actually remember the password he just gave us? Because I doubt Don Quixote out there is going to let us in unless we have the exact words.”

Tina and Queenie headed up the stairs to a spirited discussion on whether Dumbledore had said  ‘growing, aggravate, going, meredith, the brothers of ork knees” (Manuel’s contribution) and whether his hair was actually that color naturally ( Percival’s opinion was a solid no).

Snuggled into their soft beds, claiming the ones closest to the windows, Queenie and Tina settled in, feeling almost as if they were characters in a fairy tale, gifted with the chance to see how the other half lives.

The morning went about as well as one could have expected.  Tina had never pegged Seraphina for the one who would refuse to ask for directions, but from the exasperated look on Percival’s face she quietly assumed that this was commonplace between the two friends.  Eventually they all ended up back in the Great Hall and split up for their various classes.

Tina inevitably ended up lost, turning down corridor after corridor in the hopes to make it to the door that would lead her to the outside and her Care of Magical Creatures class.  She would have asked for help, if there were any students in sight, but by now she was horribly late and there were less and less people around to approach. She heard the strangled yelp before she saw its owner, heard the distress evident in the noise as she turned a corner to find a group of students grouped loosely around the biggest one who was dangling a boy her own age high off the ground with some sort of levitation enchantment.  

The boy’s mop of reddish curls were flopping everywhere, his pale green eyes wide with terror as he struggled to get out of the enchantment while the girl casting the levitation charm twitched her wand to shake him roughly. “We just want to see the creatures you have in your pockets, Salamander. We want to study them. Maybe even dissect them.” The students ranged loosely in a ring laughed as the boy shouted in distress that, “No, they’re peaceful!” and Tina felt rage surge through her at their treatment of a fellow student.

Before she knew what she was doing she’d whipped out her wand and shouted out a loud “Expelliarmus” to the surprise of the bullies before her. She’d only just mastered the spell a few weeks prior and she was terrified it wouldn’t work, but the girl’s wand flew out of her hand in a tight arc, slamming with so much force into the wall that Tina vaguely registered that she might have broke it.

The crowd turned as one and Tina just barely registered their blue ties and scarves, the hallmark of Ravenclaws, the house known for the pursuit of knowledge. She had been warned by rumors that Slytherins were the ones to watch out for, but, if she knew nothing else, Tina knew that bad apples existed in every group.  A thirst for knowledge was not always a decent trait, especially when that knowledge involved the torment or misery of others. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake was as double edged a sword as cleverness, loyalty, or boundless bravery.

The boy landed with a thump on the cobblestones and Tina wished desperately that she would have known a spell to make that fall less painful. Unfortunately second year Ilvermorny students, even good ones, couldn’t know everything.

“That was my wand, you little blighter.” Tina didn’t back up as the girl stepped forward, azure eyes stormy with anger. “My family paid a lot for that and I’m going to make you pay.” Heartbeats stretched in the moment as the girl loomed over her and Tina found herself wondering in the back of her mind if this was what was going to get her expelled or killed, death by defending a person she didn’t even know.

(She found that it was a worthy way to go, even if she didn’t want to die.)

“You’ll do nothing of the sort.” A furious voice rang out just as Tina thought it was all over.  She turned slightly to see a lean young man around Percival and Seraphina’s age striding towards her, a shiny badge with the word ‘Prefect’ on it glinting in the pale fall sunlight streaming through the windows.

She had heard that Slytherins were cold, calculating, and dispassionate, but this man in the silver and green tie was all fire and fury, his auburn hair burning in the sunlight, his dark green eyes lit with the passion of an avenging angel. The students around her scattered, running off like scared mice and the man made no effort to stop them.  He zeroed in on the boy softly sobbing on the floor, pulling him up and hugging him gently.

“I know you won’t stand up for yourself Newt, but can you at least use the coin I gave you to signal me when you’re in trouble? Wear it on a chain if you have to, so you don’t forget it okay?” Tina made to back away and head onto finding her class and was surprised at the, “Hold on a minute, will you? You’re not in trouble,” that came from the older boy’s mouth as he held the younger one close to him for a moment longer.  

“I’m Theseus Scamander and I want to thank you for standing up for my brother. It was a brave thing you did taking on those older students all on your own.” The taller boy knelt down to her level and Tina, small for her age and only ever proud of her actions, felt a small glow of pride at the knowledge that she had done something good.

“I couldn’t let them hurt him,” was her resolute response, “It isn’t right.” Theseus smiled and nodded. “What a very American sentiment,” he remarked as the boy who she’d rescued came over to peer at her curiously. Side by side it was clear that they were siblings, with the same facial shape and auburn hair.

The boy stared at her from beneath his curling fringe, freckles sprinkled liberally across fair cheeks standing out as he flushed from the excitement of the last few minutes.  He held out a hand for her to shake, a muttered “I’m-Newt, thank-you-for-rescuing-me” hanging in the air between them.

Tina tried not to stare at the leafy head that poked out of Newt’s robe pocket as she shook his hand, responding, “Tina, nice to meet you.” The leafy creature was eyeing her with beady eyes, assessing if she were a threat to the boy in front of her.

She wasn’t sure what it meant when the creature tried to clamber out of the pocket to a, “No, Pickett, stop that, she’s a friend.”

Standing there in the weak fall sunlight, so late for class it didn’t matter, with a boy with strange creatures and his charming older brother, Tina felt the start of something new at the words “she’s a friend.”

Suddenly Hogwarts didn’t seem so foreign after all.

“Well I better be off,” Theseus straightened his robes gently as he stood from where he’d been kneeling. “Newt why don’t you show Tina to her class. Poor girl looks a bit lost.” He winked and strolled off while Tina colored.

Newt merely nodded solemnly and asked where she needed to go.

Tina smiled when it turned out he was headed the same way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has sent in requests! I am going to try to get to all of them, but I humbly request your patience. School makes it very hard to write so it may be some time before I actually get to a lot of them (and there are a few ideas of my own I want to play with). Thank you for all of your support!


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